Chương 34: “That Makes Things More Complicated”

Ch 34 "That Makes Things More Complicated" The warehouse groaned and crackled as flames licked hungrily at its wooden frame. The explosions seemed to be over. The City Guard Captain came out from her cover, her ears still ringing with the shock of the giant explosions.

"Guards! To position!" she barked, looking at her men struggling to stand up. One emptied his stomach at the concussive aftershock. Their cultivation wasn't quite as high as hers and it showed." Now! That's an order! This fire could eat the entire city if we don't stop it!" The men fought to raise themselves and fell in line, though some of them were still a bit shaky on their legs. They were her elite troops, after all, and they heeded her every command.

The inferno shone hard, wavering lights across Captain Joy's face as she pulled out a paper inscribed with tiny words crammed onto every inch of its surface.

"Men! Emergency Inscription #2! On me!" she commanded as her men pulled out their own papers. Each guard activated their inscription in perfect synchronization, the papers' symbols glowing with vivid blue light." Mist Guard Formation: Cloud Burst!" Joy's voice cut through the chaos. The guards' combined energy pulled at the ever-present mist of Blue Cloud City, drawing it inward like a living thing.

The moisture in the air condensed rapidly, forming a swirling vortex of water vapor that responded to their collective will.

"Burst!" Joy thrust her saber towards the building, and the concentrated mist exploded in a torrential downpour, crashing down upon the flames below. Steam hissed and billowed as water savagely struck fire, creating a thick fog that made the immediate environment much easier to breathe in than the pure black smoke had been.

"Again!" Joy ordered, sweat dripping down her face. Intense concentration was required to maintain the technique, and as the Guard Captain of Blue Cloud City, she didn't dare to falter in the slightest. Her guards moved their Qi as one, a result of their strict training. Their formation shifted to enlarge the vortex of mist swirling around the building. The warehouse groaned ominously under the flames and rain. The main support beam, weakened by fire and the explosive force, snapped with a sound like thunder.

The walls moaned and collapsed, wood and debris flung in every direction. The flames flared dangerously as the warehouse became a stacked pile of fuel. A big fireball lifted into the air, blowing away the mass of mist they had painfully gathered without mercy." Shit!" Captain Joy yelled.

"Again!" Their formation strenuously powered back to life, each member grunting and bearing the impact. They battled this way for two hours until the warehouse was a smoldering mess, but there were no longer any large lapping flames. The sky of Blue Cloud City was visible through a hole in the clouds where the vortex had been, but more clouds began to move in as mist slowly returned to the area.

"Release!" Captain Joy spoke domineeringly, but her voice betrayed exhaustion. More guards during this time had gathered and rotated out, but Captain Joy had refused to leave the head of the formation the entire time.

"Lock down the perimeter! This entire area is under investigation!" she barked out. BANG"Captain! Do you hear that?" BANG"Everybody, quiet!" the Captain shouted, with a bit more energy as she became alerted. BANG"Over there! My squadron, on me! Everybody stay on high alert for potential threats!" Captain Joy and six guards made their way through the rubble, which had burned into an impressively smaller pile. BANG"This way!" They grew closer as the banging grew louder.

"Captain! Reporting, black flames ahead!"

"What in the—" Captain Joy looked through the smoke to see small tendrils of black flame lapping up through the rubble.

"Halt! Do NOT approach!" She held up her hand, bringing her men to a halt. The sound was clearer now. The loud desperate banging was coming from inside of a safe that was half buried in the remnants of the building, right in the middle of the dark flames.

"Something's in there!" a guard shouted, stepping forward.

"I SAID do NOT approach!" Captain Joy drew her saber and swung it in front of the man, cutting off his path forward.

"Let your Captain handle this." She drew her saber to her face and held it straight up, closing her eyes. Her body began to hum slightly as her black cloak fluttered over her pristine armor.

"Everybody pay attention!" one guard shouted as the men stood to attention.

"You lucky bastards! If you can learn anything, you might not be so worthless!" Her eyes snapped open as they glowed blue with Qi. The woman's saber illuminated with the same chilling light. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"It's Captain Joy's Mist Saber Art: Piercing Impact!" the guards muttered amongst each other. She thrust her saber forward in a single, fluid motion. It pierced the air and trailed a luminous blue energy that hung in the space behind it. The concentrated Qi burst forward in a razor thin line, moving with both devastating power and frigid energy. The blast hit the safe's door in an explosion of blue that blasted debris and shook the metal, causing a low ringing sound to reverberate throughout the area.

The safe's door exploded outward with a metallic shriek as the hinges tore free from their fastenings. The door flew fifteen feet through the air before crashing into a pile of debris. The dark flames had been largely dispersed by the blast with only a few smoldering bits left.

"Holy…" one of the younger guards breathed.

"So the captain really is at 2 Star Nexus Realm already!" another whispered.

"Quiet!" another guard hissed, his own eyes wide with admiration. Captain Joy's saber stopped glowing as she lowered it, breathing heavily. A small figure stumbled out from the safe's dark interior, coughing and gasping for air.

"I thought I was gonna die!" A girl in bloodied green rags fell forward and heaved a breath of fresh air.

"It's so nice to breathe!" Her voice cracked like she was going to cry from happiness.

"Withdraw! And someone get her some water!" Joy commanded as she approached the girl. In one move she threw the girl over her shoulder and made her way back over the rubble.

"Hey! That hurts!" Amber groaned. Her aching body being handled like a travel bag didn't feel too good.

"We're getting you out of here, then you're answering some questions," the woman said, sounding a bit cold for someone who had just saved a young girl. She placed Amber down to sit on the curb outside of the rubble. A guard appeared with a water skin, and Amber drank greedily, letting water spill down her chin.

"Now, I'm going to ask some questions. I need you to answer everything truthfully. And. Honestly." Amber paused her drink as she felt the coldness in the Captain's glare. She tried to calm down her mind after nearly suffocating to death, not to mention her life and death demonic brawl. I won't get blamed for the demonic shit, right? Or am I in trouble for running? Amber thought to herself, under the cold unreadable gaze of the Captain. It felt oppressive, like she already knew everything.

That couldn't be true though… right?

"I told you not to move. Why did you run away?" An icy glare beamed down at the girl.

"Mr. Tusk was running and I—""That's not your job. Your job is to listen to my orders," the woman growled. Amber felt frustrated inside but didn't dare to speak it out loud. Did you want me to answer or not?

"And you followed Tusk here?"

"Yes, ma'am." Amber's voice creaked out as she rushed more water between her cracked lips.

"Tell me what you saw inside the warehouse."

"I chased him to his office where he drank something that made him go… all demonic." Amber hovered over the last word. She was afraid to bring it up, to have it associated in any way with her. What if they looked into her past and found she was called a demon before as well? If she was caught lying about demonic activity, though, she might be implicated. Her heart started pumping a bit faster.

"He went demonic? What do you mean? Did it have anything to do with those black flames?" Captain Joy's voice was slightly less authoritative as she tried to process the possibilities.

"He… drank something. A dark liquid. He had a whole lot of it… I didn't see any black flames though." She decided it was important to avoid suspicion, and acted as if she had never seen a black elixir before. The black flames took her by surprise though, which helped sell her act. Captain Joy fell silent and retreated to her mind for a moment.

"And how did the warehouse blow up?"

"I don't really know. He took out a piece of paper and ripped it in half, cursing at me when I had him cornered. He took it out of the metal box I hid in." Captain Joy noted the scowl on the girl's face as she spoke.

"Hmm. He had it rigged to blow in advance. An emergency evidence disposal protocol it seems. The warehouse definitely belonged to him. Tell me." The Guard Captain's eyes flashed with intensity.

"Did you see him die?"

"The demonic Qi really messed him up, and he seemed like he was on the verge of death, but…" Amber looked down for a moment. She had opened his throat from front to back with her own knife. With so much black elixir however, he very well could have survived it, if his body didn't completely break down. She had barely enough time to take cover before she was fried.

"…No, I didn't actually see him die." Captain Joy sat on the curb next to the girl and sighed, her mask of coldness breaking down with her fatigue. She took the water from Amber and drank.

"Well fuck. That makes things more complicated."

"What is blood magic? Does it have anything to do with demonic Qi?" Amber asked, feeling safe enough to ask a couple of questions now that the Captain had seemed to drop her walls a bit.

"All I know about it is that it's always some sick fuck that's using it, for their own twisted purposes. I couldn't explain it to you, but the demonic stuff about Tusk is easy to believe if he was dabbling in blood magic. Or rather, paying someone for it. That black elixir has been appearing in a few unrelated cases. Someone's been supplying it." So she didn't know much about it either. The fact that it was available for sale though was concerning, to say the least.

"What about Bone Eater?" Amber asked, looking up.

"We've sent men to find him. Tusk's got buildings and residences all over town. It's going to take a lot of work to wrap this case up," the Captain sighed. She took another drink before passing it back to Amber whose mouth was already dry again. Captain Joy stood up and took a deep breath that seemed to reset her demeanor as her eyes grew colder once again.

"Go tell everything you told me to my guard so he can write your statement. They can take you for medical care afterwards. Cadet! Come over here!" the woman barked for another guard to come near.

"I've told you, the city is on lockdown. That means nobody in, nobody out!" The man in armor spoke firmly as easily twenty or more city guards clutched their spears behind him.

"Don't you think you aren't giving enough face to the authority of Blue Cloud City?"

"You're the one to disrespect the honor of Blue Cloud City! My guard was the one to report the emergency situation! I demand to be let in!" The Lucky Tiger Caravan Leader Guren growled at the City Gate Registrar as his Qi began to flare. Behind him stood twenty or so Lucky Tiger guards who hollered to be let in as well. The situation was tense enough to cut with a blade as both sides began to yell.

"The lockdown has been lifted! The Captain has ordered the City Gates to resume operation!" A City guard came striding out of the mist, while a girl in torn and bloody green rags trailed behind him with a slight limp to her walk.

"It's her! What happened to my guard? Release her to me at once!" Guren barked at the city guard.

"Sir! Everything is okay!" The girl waved with a weak smile.

"I'm just a bit tired."

"She's been cleared for release." The guard scowled but held back an attitude as he eyed the crowd of men clutching their spears.

"The girl denied medical care, she said she would rather just go to sleep in her own tent." The girl weakly walked over to the Lucky Tiger members as she began to stumble. Wing ran forward out of the group to catch the falling girl in his arms.

"Amber!" he shouted, his voice dripping with concern.

"Are you okay?"

"You didn't… call me Cabbage…" Amber muttered out as she passed out from exhaustion.

"I'm so sorry, I…" the young guard began to whisper, trying not to let the others see his eyes begin to water.

"I shouldn't… I shouldn't be so damn weak!"